Math / 7th Grade / Unit 1: Proportional Relationships
Students deepen their understanding of ratios to investigate proportional relationships, in order to solve multi-step, real-world ratio problems using new strategies that rely on proportional reasoning.
Math
Unit 1
7th Grade
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In Unit 1, seventh grade students deepen their understanding of ratios to investigate and analyze proportional relationships. They begin the unit by looking at how proportional relationships are represented in tables, equations, and graphs. As they analyze each representation, students continue to internalize what proportionality means, and how concepts like the constant of proportionality are visible in different ways. Students then spend time comparing examples of proportional and non-proportional associations, and studying how all the representations are connected to one another. Finally, in this unit, students will solve multi-step, real-world ratio and rate problems using efficient strategies and representations that rely on proportional reasoning (MP.4). These new strategies and representations, such as setting up and solving a proportion, are added to students’ growing list of approaches to solve problems. Throughout the unit, students will engage with MP.2 and MP.6. Translating between equations, graphs, tables, and written explanations requires students to reason both abstractly and quantitatively, and to pay precise attention to units, calculations, and forms of communication throughout their work.
In sixth grade, students were introduced to the concept of ratios and rates. They learned several strategies to represent ratios and to solve problems, including using concrete drawings, double number lines, tables, tape diagrams, and graphs. They defined and found unit rates and applied this to measurement conversion problems. Seventh grade students will draw on these conceptual understandings to fully understand proportional relationships.
Beyond this unit, in Unit 5, seventh grade students will re-engage with proportional reasoning, solving percent problems and investigating how proportional reasoning applies to scale drawings. In eighth grade, students connect unit rate to slope, and they compare proportional relationships across different representations. They expand their understanding of non-proportional relationships to study linear functions in the form of $$y=mx+b$$, and compare these to non-linear functions, such as $$y=6x^2$$.
Pacing: 22 instructional days (18 lessons, 3 flex days, 1 assessment day)
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The following assessments accompany Unit 1.
Have students complete the Pre-Unit Assessment and Pre-Unit Student Self-Assessment before starting the unit. Use the Pre-Unit Assessment Analysis Guide to identify gaps in foundational understanding and map out a plan for learning acceleration throughout the unit.
Pre-Unit Student Self-Assessment
Have students complete the Mid-Unit Assessment after lesson 9.
Use the resources below to assess student mastery of the unit content and action plan for future units.
Post-Unit Assessment
Post-Unit Assessment Answer Key
Post-Unit Student Self-Assessment
Use student data to drive your planning with an expanded suite of unit assessments to help gauge students’ facility with foundational skills and concepts, as well as their progress with unit content.
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
Unit Launch
Prepare to teach this unit by immersing yourself in the standards, big ideas, and connections to prior and future content. Unit Launches include a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning.
A group of 4 students buy movie tickets for $24. At this rate, how much would 20 students pay for the movie?
$$\frac{4\space \mathrm{students}}{$24} = \frac{20\space \mathrm{students}}{$x}$$
$$4x=24(20)$$
$$x=$120$$
The table below shows some weights of rice, in pounds, and their corresponding costs, in dollars.
The graph below shows the relationship between the cost of gas and the number of gallons of gas purchased at a gas station.
The central mathematical concepts that students will come to understand in this unit
Terms and notation that students learn or use in the unit
commission
constant of proportionality
dependent variable
equivalent ratio
independent variable
part to whole ratio
part to part ratio
proportion
proportional relationship
ratio
rate
unit rate
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 1, view our 7th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
The materials, representations, and tools teachers and students will need for this unit
To see all the materials needed for this course, view our 7th Grade Course Material Overview.
Topic A: Representing Proportional Relationships in Tables, Equations, and Graphs
Solve ratio and rate problems using double number lines, tables, and unit rate.
7.RP.A.1 7.RP.A.2
Represent proportional relationships in tables, and define the constant of proportionality.
7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.2.B
Determine the constant of proportionality in tables, and use it to find missing values.
7.RP.A.2.A 7.RP.A.2.B
Write equations for proportional relationships presented in tables.
7.RP.A.2.B 7.RP.A.2.C
Write equations for proportional relationships from word problems.
7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.2.C
Represent proportional relationships in graphs.
7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.2.A 7.RP.A.2.D
Interpret proportional relationships represented in graphs.
7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.2.D
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Topic B: Non-Proportional Relationships
Compare proportional and non-proportional relationships.
7.RP.A.2.A
Determine if relationships are proportional or non-proportional.
Topic C: Connecting Everything Together
Make connections between the four representations of proportional relationships (Part 1).
7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.2.A 7.RP.A.2.B 7.RP.A.2.C 7.RP.A.2.D
Make connections between the four representations of proportional relationships (Part 2).
Use different strategies to represent and recognize proportional relationships.
Topic D: Solving Ratio & Rate Problems with Fractions
Find the unit rate of ratios involving fractions.
7.RP.A.1
Find the unit rate and use it to solve problems.
7.RP.A.1 7.RP.A.3
Solve ratio and rate problems by setting up a proportion.
Solve ratio and rate problems by setting up a proportion, including part-part-whole problems.
Solve multi-step ratio and rate problems using proportional reasoning, including fractional price increase and decrease, commissions, and fees.
7.RP.A.3
Use proportional reasoning to solve real-world, multi-step problems.
7.RP.A.1 7.RP.A.2 7.RP.A.3
Key
Major Cluster
Supporting Cluster
Additional Cluster
The content standards covered in this unit
7.RP.A.1 — Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units. For example, if a person walks 1/2 mile in each 1/4 hour, compute the unit rate as the complex fraction <sup>1/2</sup>/<sub>1/4</sub> miles per hour, equivalently 2 miles per hour.
7.RP.A.2 — Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.
7.RP.A.2.A — Decide whether two quantities are in a proportional relationship, e.g., by testing for equivalent ratios in a table or graphing on a coordinate plane and observing whether the graph is a straight line through the origin.
7.RP.A.2.B — Identify the constant of proportionality (unit rate) in tables, graphs, equations, diagrams, and verbal descriptions of proportional relationships.
7.RP.A.2.C — Represent proportional relationships by equations. For example, if total cost t is proportional to the number n of items purchased at a constant price p, the relationship between the total cost and the number of items can be expressed as t = pn.
7.RP.A.2.D — Explain what a point (x, y) on the graph of a proportional relationship means in terms of the situation, with special attention to the points (0, 0) and (1, r) where r is the unit rate.
7.RP.A.3 — Use proportional relationships to solve multistep ratio and percent problems. Examples: simple interest, tax, markups and markdowns, gratuities and commissions, fees, percent increase and decrease, percent error.
Standards covered in previous units or grades that are important background for the current unit
6.EE.B.7 — Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p, q and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.
6.EE.C.9 — Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation. For example, in a problem involving motion at constant speed, list and graph ordered pairs of distances and times, and write the equation d = 65t to represent the relationship between distance and time.
5.NF.B.6 — Solve real world problems involving multiplication of fractions and mixed numbers, e.g., by using visual fraction models or equations to represent the problem.
6.RP.A.1 — Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities. For example, "The ratio of wings to beaks in the bird house at the zoo was 2:1, because for every 2 wings there was 1 beak." "For every vote candidate A received, candidate C received nearly three votes."
6.RP.A.2 — Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. Expectations for unit rates in this grade are limited to non-complex fractions. For example, "This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is 3/4 cup of flour for each cup of sugar." "We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger."
6.RP.A.3 — Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
6.RP.A.3.A — Make tables of equivalent ratios relating quantities with whole number measurements, find missing values in the tables, and plot the pairs of values on the coordinate plane. Use tables to compare ratios.
6.RP.A.3.B — Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed?
6.NS.A.1 — Interpret and compute quotients of fractions, and solve word problems involving division of fractions by fractions, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem. For example, create a story context for (2/3) ÷ (3/4) and use a visual fraction model to show the quotient; use the relationship between multiplication and division to explain that (2/3) ÷ (3/4) = 8/9 because 3/4 of 8/9 is 2/3. (In general, (a/b) ÷ (c/d) = ad/bc.) How much chocolate will each person get if 3 people share 1/2 lb of chocolate equally? How many 3/4-cup servings are in 2/3 of a cup of yogurt? How wide is a rectangular strip of land with length 3/4 mi and area 1/2 square mi?
Standards in future grades or units that connect to the content in this unit
8.EE.B.5 — Graph proportional relationships, interpreting the unit rate as the slope of the graph. Compare two different proportional relationships represented in different ways. For example, compare a distance-time graph to a distance-time equation to determine which of two moving objects has greater speed.
8.EE.B.6 — Use similar triangles to explain why the slope m is the same between any two distinct points on a non-vertical line in the coordinate plane; derive the equation y = mx for a line through the origin and the equation y = mx + b for a line intercepting the vertical axis at b.
8.F.A.1 — Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output. Function notation is not required in Grade 8.
8.F.A.2 — Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For example, given a linear function represented by a table of values and a linear function represented by an algebraic expression, determine which function has the greater rate of change.
8.F.A.3 — Interpret the equation y = mx + b as defining a linear function, whose graph is a straight line; give examples of functions that are not linear. For example, the function A = s² giving the area of a square as a function of its side length is not linear because its graph contains the points (1,1), (2,4) and (3,9), which are not on a straight line.
8.F.B.4 — Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values.
8.F.B.5 — Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1 — Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2 — Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3 — Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4 — Model with mathematics.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP5 — Use appropriate tools strategically.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP6 — Attend to precision.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP7 — Look for and make use of structure.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP8 — Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Unit 2
Operations with Rational Numbers